This is a ridiculously easy way to make poached eggs. Not that I’ve ever made poached eggs the traditional way, even though I adore them. I really love eggs: the creaminess of the whites, the richness of the yolks.

Once when I was a kid I made a soft-boiled egg to go with frozen Costco chicken fries. The crispiness of the breaded chicken dipped into the gooey golden yolk was so good! My brother came along and decried me for eating “fully grown chicken dipped into unborn chicken babies.” Apparently he thought it was a pretty cruel wait to enjoy chicken. Then he asked me if he could have some. Go figure.

Eggs really are nature’s perfect food and this is one of the simplest ways to showcase them. Plus it’s really impressive when you crack open a seemingly uncooked egg and a poached one slides out.

eggs in a 140 degree bath

Slow poaching eggs is easy. Take a giant pot of water and put on the stove. Put a steamer rack in it so the eggs aren’t close to the element. Pop a thermometer in and bring the water up to 140˚F and hold it there. Drop the eggs in their bath and let them soak for about 40-45 minutes. Done!

By the way, Chang says that 140˚F is “the temperature of a very hot bath.” I stuck my finger in water as suggested and all I have to say is this: David Chang, you take hot baths!

Note: if you want impressive photos of your slow-poached eggs, don’t put them in a white dish. White on white, it doesn’t work. Guess I should have broken that yolk!

Use your biggest pot and stabilize the temperature by using a thermometer to keep track. If it gets too hot, add a couple of ice cubes. It’s a babying process; you really need to watch the stove while it’s happening the first time you try making these eggs. Once you know what setting to keep your stove at, you won’t have to watch the temperature as much.

I was lucky enough to have my boss give me the hotplate (i work in a science type field), the thermocouple cost me AUD 100.
if you check ebay, you may be able to pick one up for a few hundred dollars, i have even seen reasonable water baths for that kind of money on ebay.
I have my rig running at the moment with pre-seared steaks at 52C… its an experiment to see if the seared flavour will pass into the meat during the cooking process.

I just tried to make these, followed the directions exactly and my eggs were still liquid when I pulled them out. Any suggestions as to what I did wrong. All I can think is that my eggs must have been larger than his.

I think that your thermometer might be indicating the wrong temperature. The first timew I tried cooking the eggs this way they took much longer than 45 minutes to cook. I them testes my thermometer and realized therin the problem.You can test your thermometer by placing it in boiling water (212 F)